As I sit here looking across a river as the sun sets, I have to think how lucky I am to be able to participate in such an amazing experience. In just three days I feel that I am already starting to gain a much greater insight into what it means to be in “movement”.

Physically, the movement is very obvious and was quite evident from the first mile that we biked. Every single mile that you pedal further across the country you feel the strain on your muscles which creates a bond between you and the land. To this point our group has ridden through many terrains, from the beach to the Oregon forest and now to the arid portions of eastern Oregon. After three days of pedaling we have covered 240 miles through many differing terrains from the beach, through the forests of Oregon, navigated the city streets in Portland, and finally have ended our third day in the arid desert in Eastern Oregon. The physical movement of the trip also became apparent today when Tim Shenk fell when coming down a hill late in the day. Thankfully he walked away with only a few scrapes and bruises, but the reality of how fragile we are as humans really stuck.

As a group we have groaned and grimaced up many hills already, and we all know what it feels like to be sore. This physical labor makes this trip all the more rewarding. When you look down the road from the top of a 4000 foot climb you can’t help but feel that the amazing accomplishment was worth all the effort. Participating in such a difficult journey, as we are, facilitates a movement of group relations. The first day that the group came together was a mere three days ago, but yet it seems that we have all known each other for years because we have all accomplished so much together already. This was especially apparent as we said goodbye to Brent Kauffman (pastor of Lebanon Mennonite). He had biked the first two days of the journey with us but had to leave last night. It was amazing to see the response our group gave to him even after knowing him for only two days. Everyone created a group circle to give him a hug and thank him for his involvement in the biking as well as in the conversation within our group and also at Portland Mennonite.

As a group the biking and relating to each other is only a portion of what we aim to accomplish on this trip. The conversation which we are attempting to create in church communities is equally important. To this point we have had numerous discussions within our group about what will hopefully take place and we have also had our first conversation time with a group at the Portland Mennonite church. This first conversation was a little intimidating because we hadn’t even had enough time as a group to fully decide what we expected to come out of the gathering or how we wanted it to flow. Yet, we threw ourselves into the conversation, although we were tired, and we were rewarded. The conversation was very candid about what it means to be a “church” and how the church has impacted lives in a positive and negative way. One theme which I feel ties together my thoughts during the conversation was vulnerability. The term community kept being used in connection with the church as a strong point of especially the Mennonite church. But this was also seen by some as a barrier which can occasionally make new visitors intimidated as well as not allowing for a safe place for existing members to express their views. What I have seen from the first few days of participating in “bikemovement” is that when as a group you make yourself vulnerable and be open to the people around you open conversation occurs. As a group we create a place where “strangers” actively seek out conversation to understand what we are doing both in our physical biking as well as to understand what we stand for. A vulnerability to individuals outside the community as well as to the members of our own community would create a “safe” place for all involved to create a deeper and more diverse local and global community.~Drew

Posted by Drew Foderaro

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 12th, 2006 at 3:01 pm and is filed under Trip06. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.